MTA, LIRR Union Leaders Returning to Talks to Avert Strike

UPDATED | Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials and Long Island Rail Road union leaders returned to the negotiating table Wednesday afternoon in hopes of reaching a contract agreement and avoiding a strike as soon as Sunday.

MTA Chairman Tom Prendergast attended the meeting but left more than an hour into the talks, which were held at a law firm’s offices in Midtown Manhattan.

Mr. Prendergast made no public statements following the meeting. His spokesman, Adam Lisberg, declined to comment about the negotiations and sought to temper expectations.

“I don’t want to give you any false hopes about progress, but the fact that they’re talking is an important one for people who hope that both sides can reach a resolution,” Mr. Lisberg said.

While it was unclear what Mr. Prendergast’s attendance signaled, on Monday, after the last round of talks collapsed, the MTA chairman said: “Until they’re ready to move, there’s no reason to have negotiations.”

Union officials have begun preparing for a strike starting at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday, which shut down the nation’s busiest commuter railroad. Labor leaders have begun to prepare members to go without pay and to walk picket lines. (See an interactive guide to the LIRR strike plan.)

Before the talks got underway Wednesday, Anthony Simon, chief spokesman for a coalition of LIRR unions in the talks, said labor leaders never wanted to stop negotiating.

“We are prepared for the unfortunate, but we are not going in there with the idea that we don’t want to sit down and have a conversation,” Mr. Simon said. “We’re going to try to rectify this and come to a reasonable resolution, and we will have more to say once these talks today conclude.”

If the LIRR unions did walk off the job, customers would not likely need to see a winding down of service ahead of the shutdown on Sunday, according to Edward Yule Jr., a former labor official who orchestrated the last LIRR strike, in 1994.

Mr. Yule said LIRR trains could be secured after the strike deadline and that scheduled service in preceding days would not need to be interrupted. “They’re not going to leave people stranded,” he said.

Earlier in the day, the war of words continued as both sides lobbed public salvos at each other. The MTA took out radio and print newspaper ads asking “When is enough enough?” — to draw attention to what the authority says are LIRR workers’ already generous compensation packages.

The LIRR unions, in turn, issued their own public letter Wednesday morning. The letter took aim at what the unions said were MTA management’s “windfall benefits,” and blamed the authority for a shutdown. “We regret that their intransigence will now cause a strike,” the letter says.

Earlier Wednesday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo joined members of Congress from Long Island in urging both sides to return to negotiations. On Tuesday he said a work stoppage would be “a real pain,” but not a disaster.

“You’re never going to solve the situation if you’re not talking,” Mr. Cuomo said while in Rochester on Wednesday. “I’m cautiously optimistic that they will honor the request. And hopefully, if they’re talking, we’re one step closer to a resolution. A strike would be a terrible, terrible inconvenience.”

Mr. Prendergast and the MTA Board’s Vice Chairman, Fernando Ferrer, were both appointed by Mr. Cuomo.

Employers and commuters on Long Island and in New York City alike are bracing for a strike, which the MTA said would cause major congestion on the subways and roads. The MTA has created a contingency travel plan.

While an agreement remains elusive, Mr. Yule suggested the governor would soon assert himself, just as his father, Mario Cuomo, did in ending the 1994 LIRR strike.

“A strike is the last thing anybody wants ,” Mr. Yule said. “After the governor gives them a kick in the pants to settle this, they’ll settle it.”